Zach's 16th Birthday

Happy 16th Birthday Zach!

Even with the cake disaster, I know Zach enjoyed sharing his birthday with his friends, Jake, Sam and Ahnalies. We found him the camera of his dreams in Singapore so he's been experimenting with that. The only drawback with turning 16 in India is no driver's license. But we'll work on that this summer!

Animals we saw in Australia...

They don't have to tell us twice!

Wild dingo.

Cockatoos--there were flocks of these in the trees!

Best shot Emma could get of kangaroo hopping away!

The only reptile we saw at the billabong where kids were swimming!

The best part of going to a national park is seeing all the wildlife in their natural habitat. These are the main animals we saw. We also saw more birds than I can even name here.

More photos from Kakadu

Jumping Croc cruise where "Rogue" was filmed.

Giant termite mounds!


Resting at Nourlangie Rock until we couldn't take the flies anymore :)

Life in India is a piece of cake...NOT!

This cake symbolizes everything that is infuriating about India. I have not done lots of baking here but Zach wanted a german chocolate cake for his sixteenth birthday and I was happy to oblige. Let me share what it took to get this disaster to the table. First, I go to the store to find a cake mix several days before his birthday because you never know what's going to be available on the shelf. Of course, no german chocolate, so I settle for chocolate. It's the icing that makes it german chocolate anyway, right? The day before his birthday I go to buy pecans-no pecans, so I get walnuts. Evaporated milk??? What's that??? "Ma'am, do you mean condensed milk, boxed milk, powdered milk, coconut milk?" "No" I say, "it comes in a can. It's for baking and cooking." "Okay, ma'am, I will check with salesman this week." "No, I need it today. Thanks anyway." So I go home, determined to make this cake work somehow. I sense there's trouble when the directions for the cake mix are in arabic with a small English translation at the bottom of the box. It calls for 1 and 1/5 cup of water. Have you ever used this measurement in your life??? As the cake bakes up into two grotesque mounds of large lumps, I'm beginning to worry. After the cakes comes out of oven and begins to cool, I decide to go online to find a substitute for evaporated milk. I go fire up the computer, wait 5 minutes for it to boot up, type in "substitutes for evaporated milk" and BLIP--the electricity goes out and shuts off the computer. I take a deep breath and make an executive decision. Isn't evaporated milk just MILK? I'm going with that. Later I turn the cakes out of the pans and I've never had them fall into so many different pieces on the plate! I lose it. I'm slinging pans into the dishwasher and Farid wanders in and asks, "What happened?" My response? INDIA HAPPENED!!!

Afterword: the cake tasted much better than it looked and Farid, the kids and their friends graciously ate the cake :)

Litchfield National Park

Is this heaven on earth???

The mist coming off this waterfall was so refreshing on a very hot day!

Zach and Emma cannot resist jumping into the billabong!


The last full day in Australia we drove down to Litchfield National Park. After all the fun we had at Kakadu, we wanted to see another park instead of shopping and we're glad we did. A few days before, the paper had reported that a women was attacked by a crocodile at this park and pulled into the water. Her husband had jumped on the croc's back and poked it's eyes and it released her with minor injuries. The park had signs posted throughout that either said pay attention for crocodiles or simply that a particular area was closed. We felt we would be safe as long as we followed the signs posted. Our very first stop was a a beautiful waterfall with a rushing creek at the bottom. There was lots of swimmers in the water. It made me a little nervous and we had not brought any swimsuits anyway, assuming that it would not be safe. But boy it looked like fun. We went on to several other waterfalls, termite mounds and cliffs and as the day got hotter and hotter, I told the kids that if they wanted to stop back at the "billabong" on our way out, we would. They jumped on it and you can see from the pictures that they had a blast. The only reptile we saw was the big lizard that I have posted with the animal pictures. It was a GREAT last day in Australia! I highly recommend this area to anyone thinking about Australia. Most people tend to go to the Gold Coast and the big cities, but the Northern Territory was amazing and definitely worth seeing!

Kakadu National Park

Emma and Zach at Nourlangie Rock at the ancient cave drawings.

Yellow Water Cruise where the crocodiles swam with us or after us, not sure which!!!

View of Twin Falls from plane in Kakadu National Park.

Our flight let us view all the beautiful waterfalls not accessible by road during the wet season.

Posing with the didgeridoos!

The second part of our trip was spent in Kakadu National Park which was a 3 hour drive from Darwin. We had so much fun renting a car and driving it ourselves!!! It wasn't too hard to get used to driving on the left side of the road. Farid only turned out into the wrong lane one time and the honking horns told us pretty quickly to scoot over :) Kakadu is magnificent! It's 8,000 square miles, remote, and full of crocodiles, exotic birds, kangaroos and waterfalls! It was where the movie "Crocodile Dundee" was filmed and we got a sense of the real outback. Everyone warned us about the heat there but compared to India, it was not a problem! We hiked to several important sites, including aboriginal cave paintings up to 20,000 years old! Worse than the heat was the flies but after our first outing we sprayed ourselves down and used small twigs to constantly swat the flies! I told the kids if the hikes were easy, we wouldn't be in the outback. We had alot of fun. Because it was the end of the wet season, we could not access the waterfalls, which really are the highlight of the park so we booked a one hour flight over all the waterfalls. The pictures speak for themselves! Most of the pools were closed due to crocodile sightings. We also took a Yellow River boat cruise where we saw saltwater crocodiles just like you see on The Crocodile Hunter swimming through the water. The hotel we stayed in was the Holiday Inn which is actually shaped like and looks like a crocodile from the outside. The rooms and food were okay but since it was the best one in the park and nothing for 3 hours out, we didn't have a choice. However, the staff was very friendly and helpful planning our itinerary. We spent 3 days there and would thoroughly recommend that trip to anyone. On the way back to Darwin we took a Jumpin' Croc Cruise where they take you out on boats and hold out bait to the crocs who jump up out of the water to get it. The funny thing about this place was that on our stopover in Singapore we had time to catch a movie, something we never do in India. The preview was for a movie called "Rogue" a sort of action/thriller about a croc jumping tour that is terrorized by a rogue crocodile - think "Anaconda"! Farid leans over and says that's not the tour we're doing, is it? Then when we show up for our actual cruise, there's a signed movie poster thanking the owner of this place for all his help making the movie so realistic! I asked him if anything similar to that had actually ever happened and he said in his Steve Irwin voice with a very serious voice, "Actually, those of us in this business were amazed at how frightenly accurate the movie is." Think he was plugging the movie??? Anyway, we survived the croc cruise and if you happen to see this movie, you'll see the area where we were!

http://www.roguecrocodile.com

The Ghaderi's Go Down Under!

Zach trying a Croc Burger.


Zach at Crocodylus Park.




Sunset in Darwin Harbor.


Aquascene feeding the fish that come in at high tide.


View from our hotel of Darwin Harbor.


Termite mounds!


Emma thought the baby crocodile was "so cute!"



Many people think of going to Australia as a dream vacation. We always thought we'd go later on in life but one of the perks of being in India is our closer proximity to Australia so we decided to take advantage of it! Before our talk about our "dream" trip, let me share what I now know about Tiger Airlines. It's a new one and no one we knew had ever heard of it but they had great fares so we decided to try it. I now know the meaning of budget airlines. Now those of you that know me will know that I never look down on a bargain, BUT I would never recommend this airline to anyone. The seats were so jammed together that I felt sorry for anyone with long legs or over 6 feet tall. Emma was sure that the seats did not recline more than 1/4 inch. That wouldn't be bad on a short flight but we always boarded this airline after midnight when we are were ready for some shut eye. There was NOTHING complimentary on the flight. A bottle of water was $3.50. And they had the nerve to announce as they offered their $7.50 meals that outside food and beverage was not allowed on the plane! Luckily we had eaten before we boarded. The stewardess came through asking if anyone wanted a pillow or blanket and Farid said he would take a blanket. She told him it would be $12! Farid did without. Finally, after boarding Tiger Airlines three times we were told on the last leg of the trip that they didn't recognize our Indian visas, that they had never seen the type we had before and couldn't validate them. After several minutes and some heated exchanges with the manager, she finally said "We will let you on the plane if you sign this form releasing us from any cost should the Indian authorites not let you into the country." Go figure...

Okay, enough with Tiger Airlines. You get my point. The only good thing was that it took us to our destination! We spent most of our days in Darwin which is the northernmost city in Australia and the capital of the Northern Territory. We had a beautiful harbor view of the Indian Ocean from our hotel and we were able to take leisurely stolls through clean streets without anyone staring at us for being so "white!" We could walk to Aquascene where fish come in from the ocean to be hand fed during high tide. We toured the Museum of the Northern territory where Zach was able to see the youth exhibition from Australia's teen artists. He was majorly impressed with what he saw and couldn't believe they were only his age. We also went through a simulation of Cyclone Tracy that hit Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974. It was so strange to know this happened the same year as the tornadoes in KY that devastated Meade County where I lived at the time. I had no idea the significance that Darwin played during WWII. It was repeatedly bombed by the Japanese and there were many war memorials, including the USS Peary which was attacked and sunk during the first air attack on the city. Before we left Darwin we visited Crocodylus Park where we saw them feed crocodiles, got to hold them, and visited the small zoo there.

Hindu Holi Festival

Zach with his friend Sam.



The Spring Festival of India, Holi - is a festival of colors. Celebrated in March or April according to the Hindu calendar, it was meant to welcome the spring and win the blessings of Gods for good harvests and fertility of the land. As with all the Hindu festivals, there are many interesting legends attached to Holi, the most popular being that of Prince Prahlad, who was a devout follower of Lord Vishnu. It is the second most important festival of India after Diwali. Holi in India is a festival of fun and frolic and has been associated with the immortal love of Krishna and Radha. The exuberance and the festivity of the season are remarkable.

Okay, that's the official definition. For the high schoolers at the American School it meant "Paint Wars!!!" They all donned old clothing and ran around splashing, pelting, rubbing and throwing brightly colored powdered paint at each other. To make sure it was really fun they turned on the sprinklers to "rinse off"! I thought I was seeing a seven year old Zach in a 15 year old body. They had a blast and I only had to wash his tshirt 4 or 5 times to get it remotely clean. But hey, I told him that would be his souvenir shirt from Holi :)